Barclays ex-CEO avoids implicating UK authorities

July 5, 2012

LONDON - The former boss of Barclays, who lost his job over a financial market-fixing scandal, said Wednesday that a Bank of England official had not encouraged him to report false data at the height of the credit crunch in 2008.

Bob Diamond, who resigned as chief executive a day earlier, was grilled by a parliamentary committee about his conversation with Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, on Oct. 29, 2008.

That conversation, disclosed Tuesday by Barclays, has become the focus of questions about the false data submitted by Barclays between 2005 and 2009 which last week drew a fine of $453 million by U.S. and British agencies.

The question is crucial to the development of the market-fixing scandal because it would determine whether British authorities were encouraging banks to report lower than actual borrowing rates to ease market concerns over the banks' financial health.